Epitaph for a Spy

Epitaph for a Spy is a 1938 spy novel by Eric Ambler.

Epitaph for a Spy

First edition
Author	Eric Ambler
Language	English
Publisher	Hodder & Stoughton
Publication date	1938
Publication place	United Kingdom
Media type	Print
OCLC	758608170
Preceded by	Uncommon Danger
Followed by	Cause for Alarm

Plot

Josef Vadassy is a Hungarian refugee who is effectively stateless. He was born in Szabadka, then in Hungary, but it became Subotica and part of Yugoslavia following the 1920 Treaty of Trianon. His Yugoslav passport later expired and the authorities refused to renew it.

While on holiday in the south of France, he sends a roll of camera film for development, however, it turns out to contain pictures which are not his, of nearby naval defences. He is arrested on suspicion of spying. The police realise that Vadassy did not take the pictures, but that someone else at his hotel must have an identical camera, a Zeiss Ikon Contax. Vadassy is told to return to the hotel to find the real spy, with the threat that should he fail to do so, he will be deported, which could mean death.

Context

The novel was published and is set just before World War II. Vadassy is a typical Ambler protagonist, sympathetic but out of his depth. The plight of stateless individuals is a recurring theme in Ambler's novels.^[1] The hotel setting makes the novel similar to a country house whodunit.^[2]

The book contained early descriptions of German concentration camps, based on Ambler's conversations with refugees and reading of left-wing newspapers.^[3]

The book was serialised in the Daily Express and made Ambler a household name.^[4]

Adaptations

The novel was filmed as Hotel Reserve in 1944, starring James Mason. It was adapted for television in 1953, with Peter Cushing as Josef Vadassy, and again in 1963 with Colin Jeavons as Vadassy.